Written Answers Monday 19 April 2010

Scottish Executive

Alcohol

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many licensees who have been charged by the police for alleged breaches of licensing laws have had their cases marked as no proceedings by the procurators fiscal in each year since 2007.

Frank Mulholland: Information about the capacity in which an accused is prosecuted is not available and it is therefore not possible to identify the number of licence holders who have been reported to procurators fiscal.

  In 2007-08, 1,858 charges under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976 were reported to procurators fiscal and no action was taken in respect of 312 of those charges.

  In 2008-09, 1,924 charges were reported and no action was taken in respect of 317.

  Procurators fiscal will take no action for a variety of reasons, including insufficient admissible evidence, mitigating circumstances and lack of jurisdiction or where it would be disproportionate, in the public interest, to take action. Full details of the considerations taken into account by prosecutors when considering whether to take action are available in the COPFS Prosecution Code which is available on the COPFS website, www.copfs.gov.uk.

Communities

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will reopen applications to its Race, Religion and Refugee funding stream to allow other organisations to bid for the £128,000 paid back by the Scottish-Islamic Foundation.

Alex Neil: The Scottish Government has no plans to reopen the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration funding stream. I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31213 on 26 February 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Communities

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had discussions with the auditors of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation regarding the foundation’s (a) preparation of accounts or (b) current financial situation.

Alex Neil: The Scottish Islamic Foundation’s auditors wrote to the Scottish Government on 16 February 2010, and a reply was issued by the Scottish Government on 18 February.

Communities

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had discussions with the Scottish-Islamic Foundation regarding the foundation’s (a) preparation of accounts or (b) current financial situation.

Alex Neil: The Scottish Government has on-going discussions with all of the organisations it funds to deliver specific projects and initiatives. Organisations in receipt of funding are obliged to provide the Scottish Government with accounting information as part of their standard grant conditions. The preparation of accounts is a matter for each individual organisation.

Crime

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many acute occupied bed days in NHS Lothian were directly connected with knife and bladed objects crime-related incidents in each of the last five years for which information is available, also broken down by age of patient.

Nicola Sturgeon: It is not possible to reliably determine from centrally available NHS discharge records whether the reason for admission to an acute hospital is for a crime-related incident. However, a diagnosis of "Assault by sharp object" can be determined from hospital discharge records.

  Information on the number of occupied bed days in NHS Lothian where there is a diagnosis of "Assault by sharp object" is presented in the following table.

  It should be noted that a small proportion of injuries caused by a sharp object will be coded as accident, self-harm or undetermined intent yet may be related to a criminal incident. Such cases are not included in the table below.

  Number of Acute Occupied Bed Days1 in NHS Lothian2 Connected with an Assault by Sharp Object3, Patient Discharged during Year Ending 31 March 2005-2009, by

  Age Group4, Total Number of Bed Days

  

 
 Financial Years


 2004-05
 2005-06
 2006-07
 2007-08
 2008-09


 All Ages
 378
 269
 240
 182
 344


 0-19
 47
 33
 37
 21
 44


 20-29
 104
 100
 105
 82
 166


 30-39
 144
 81
 75
 32
 106


 40-49
 32
 42
 20
 23
 22


 50+
 51
 13
 3
 24
 6



  Source: ISD SMR01, March 2010.

  Notes:

  1. Occupied Bed Days are calculated using the length of stay variable (i.e. date of discharge minus date of admission).

  2. Data are taken from the national Scottish Morbidity Record Scheme 01 (SMR01), which records all inpatient and day case discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric specialties in NHS hospitals in Scotland. An SMR01 episode is generated when a patient is discharged from hospital, but also when a patient is transferred between hospitals, specialties or to the care of a different consultant. The date of discharge was used to extract the data.

  3. Discharges connected to assault by a sharp object have been defined using the International Classification of Disease codes ICD10 (X99) and episodes have been selected on all secondary diagnosis positions.

  4. In order to minimize the risk of disclosure due to small numbers, figures for ages 0-19 and 50+ have been aggregated.

  For information; the numbers of admissions connected to assault by a sharp object in NHS Lothian was provided in the answer to S3W-32124 on 15 March 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

  Additional data and commentary on assault by a sharp object is published as part of ISD’s Unintentional Injuries publication http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/5327.html.

Health

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure that patients with musculoskeletal conditions being treated in NHS primary and secondary care receive appropriate and timely referral to specialist care services.

Nicola Sturgeon: Clinicians in Scotland will follow national and local clinical guidelines to ensure the most appropriate management of people with musculoskeletal conditions whether in primary care or in secondary care. GPs should follow these protocols in relation to referral of patients to specialised hospital services.

  The current waiting time standard for a first outpatient consultation is that no patient should wait more than 12 weeks following a referral. Should the patient then require to receive inpatient and day case treatment they should wait no longer than 12 weeks.

  NHS boards are currently working on patient pathways to ensure patients get appropriate access to secondary care services swiftly. Protocols and guidelines are currently being revised between primary and secondary care sectors to ensure the delivery of the 18 weeks referral to treatment time target by the end of December 2011. These protocols should ensure the patients journey from GP to any specialised services is seamless.

Health

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken specifically to shorten (a) waiting times and (b) lengths of stay in hospital for patients with musculoskeletal conditions so as to deliver the 18-week referral to treatment waiting times target.

Nicola Sturgeon: We have set milestone targets towards delivery of the 18 weeks referral to treatment time target. The current standards are 12 weeks for both a first outpatient consultation and for inpatient and day case treatment. The inpatient and day case treatment will reduce to nine weeks from the end of March 2011.

  The Scottish Government are currently working with NHS boards on the development of integrated care pathways for musculoskeletal services and on re-designing services to remove delays or blockages in the patients journey through hospital services. This will ensure that the most efficient and effective good practice is also spread across the whole of NHSScotland. For example the Golden Jubilee National Hospital has developed an enhanced recovery programme for orthopaedics which has resulted in the length of stay for patients being reduced from six days to four days at the hospital.

  The hospital is now helping lead the development of the enhanced recovery programme in hip and knee replacements across Scotland, working alongside all other boards. The sharing of such good practice will deliver equitable and high-quality driven care through services across Scotland.

Regeneration

John Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what is being done to support urban regeneration in Lanarkshire in its economic recovery plan.

Alex Neil: The Economic Recovery Plan sets out a number of priorities to accelerate economic recovery and increase sustainable economic growth across Scotland. The plan contains measures that will support urban regeneration in Lanarkshire and elsewhere; including our joint working with European partners aimed at establishing a JESSICA fund in Scotland, and our support for town centres.

  In 2009-10, the Scottish Government allocated £3.59 million from the Town Centre Regeneration Fund to four projects in Lanarkshire. In addition, it has also invested over £40 million to date in Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company, with further investment planned, and allocated a total of £13.35 million from the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund to North and South Lanarkshire Councils over the period 2008-11.